


The Fine Line

by Dream_Wreaver



Series: Gabriel Appreciation Week 2018 [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 03:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13450077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Wreaver/pseuds/Dream_Wreaver
Summary: Categories are created with thick borders, but all to often the reality is that the line between them is too fine for comfort





	The Fine Line

Many wondered about the dichotomy between good and evil. That fine, fine line between what made a hero and what made a villain. Some said that it was all about intent. Others claimed the inherent wrongness in certain actions that disregarded their intentions altogether. He himself never wondered about that fine line. He knew full well what he was doing was wrong. He had said it from the very beginning. Nooroo had tried to talk him out of it, but he had known he could not be swayed.

After all, wasn’t a villain the hero of their own story? He knew what he was doing was wrong, but the justification he had for all of this was that his intentions for it all were good. He was trying to do something good for his family. To fix what had been broken, heal what had been hurt, all that Disney-esque claptrap. He was but one man, he had his weaknesses same as any other. He wouldn’t have even resorted to all of this if he’d been able to track down the jewelry on his own. But when all his resources had failed to locate the last known possessors of the miraculous, his thoughts had turned down a darker path. He’d had to force them out of hiding. And thus was his daily routine now.

Good, evil, they were all constructs of the mind. A way to keep people under some invisible thumb. Mindless violence had existed since the dawn of humanity. People killed and were killed. People did what they deemed necessary to achieve their goals. Was murder still wrong if the person killed was dubbed a tyrant? Even the most moral person might have trouble arguing that point. That was the problem with the world. Everything had to be put into a neat little box. Something either was or it wasn’t. Black or white. Good or bad. The problem was that the world didn’t work like that. Things could not be so nicely compartmentalized into specific labels. The real world wasn’t black and white, it was a whole spectrum, with many messy shades of gray.  
And in his case, many shades of purple. He began to detest the color. Purple no longer represented the royalty it was historically evocative of. Purple to him mean the continuous trial and failure. Purple was the color of doing what needed to be done. Purple was the color of villainy.

Color him a villain? That was fine. Let all of Paris tremble before him and the might he wielded. Let them be afraid of their own emotions yet unable to control them. Let them know their fate was sealed by their own hands. He was the villain? Perhaps, but he was not a villain alone. Some said he manipulated the emotions of others, he believed that was too strong a word. Did he prey upon them? Yes. Did he play upon them? Most certainly. But in the end he kept his word always. He granted them the power to satisfy the negative emotions beating in their chest like a trapped butterfly. What they chose to do with it afterward wasn’t his concern. Once Ladybug and Chat Noir came out, then was the only time he cared. And each and every time he was not the one who failed to hold up their end of the bargain. Let them call him a villain. He alone knew the truth. There was no good, there was no evil, there was only life and death, power and weakness, action and reaction and the ramifications of such, the “good” and “evil” were something tacked in afterwards. He was no villain, he was no hero. He was just a man who wanted to make things right.

But call him a villain, that was fine too.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Let me know and leave a comment. Until next time


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